Cultbytes

Jane Swavely. “Not Yet Titled,” 2026. Courtesy of Magenta Plains. Nothing is real. And nothing to get hung about. Jane Swavely’s newest body of work an explosion of smeared and stroked oil paints, a play on transparency and opacity, gestures and traces. These works are visceral and OTT—like a trip—there is so much to see in each of them. Yet, traces within them draw us back to reality—Strawberry Fields has a bootprint on its upper middle, “a vintage Prada boot from the 90’s,” she explains.

scar Kokoschka. “Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton and 11th Duke of Brandon (1903-1973) with his wife Elizabeth Ivy Percy, Duchess of Hamilton (b, 1916),” 1969. 89.80 x 129.80 cm. Courtesy of the writer. My first encounter with Oskar Kokoschka came through an elderly friend who showed me a photo of a portrait of his parents painted by the famous expressionist artist.

Cinthya Santos Briones. “Playground New York City, USA,” 2017. Archival Pigment Print on Canson Platine. 24” x 16.” Courtesy of Cinthya Santos Briones. In Cinthya Santos Briones’ solo exhibition Living in Sanctuary the artist explores the lives of people—immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees—who are living in church sanctuary spaces across the United States through photographs full of life, warmth, and color.

Tanja Ostojić. “I’ll Be Your Angel,” 2001. 22 min video. Courtesy of Tanja Ostojić. On the second floor, Tanja Ostojić is beaming on screen, dressed in a glitzy gown. I glimpse a large column, greenery, and gravel and can tell that she is in Venice in the Giardini, the main site of the world’s oldest art biennial. The video work is I’ll Be Your Angel (2001) in which Ostojić joins curator Harald Szeeman during the preview days of the 49th Venice Biennial, which he curated.

Jimena Vega. “Mi Cabeza es un Jardin,” 2026. Ceramics and flowers. Photo by Maria Baranova. Courtesy New York Live Arts. As someone who has migrated across two countries as an adult, with English as a second language, I am acutely aware of what it means to exist in-between.

David Hockney. “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures),” 1972. Acrylic paint. Acrylic paint. 7 ft × 10 ft. 2.1 m × 3.0 m. David Hockney has always been a looming presence. The last Pop Artist. Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) from 1972 sold for a record-breaking sum of $90.3 at Christie’s in 2018, which perhaps explains why the Los Angeles art scene remains brimming with swimming pool imagery to this day.

Installation view of “Calder. Rêver en équilibre,” 2026 at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris. One of the most touching passages in Alexander Calder’s autobiography Calder: An Autobiography with Pictures (1966) is when he recounts receiving a pair of pliers as a gift. He describes the tool with such affection and wonder that it feels as though the entire world has shifted before him.

Malin Gabriella Nordin, 2024. Photographed by Märta Thisner. Courtesy of the artist. In Stockholm, in the studio of Swedish painter Malin Gabriella Nordin, late spring sprouts in light green outside her large windows. I visit the studio ahead of Nordin’s upcoming residency at the Mack Art Foundation in New York City. Nordin belongs to those that see, reaching in fearless surrender to trace the shape of an invisible threshold.

Jimena Vega. “Mi Cabeza es un Jardin,” 2026. Ceramics and flowers. Photo by Maria Baranova. Courtesy New York Live Arts. As someone who has migrated across two countries as an adult, with English as a second language, I am acutely aware of what it means to exist in-between.

Cecily Brown. “Nature Walk with Paranoia,” 2024. Courtesy of Serpentine Gallery. In Edward Helmore’s deservingly laudatory Guardian profile of British artist Cecily Brown, from 2023, she comments: “I could do a slash of pink and someone would assume it was something sexual even when it wasn’t.” Walking through Cecily Brown: Picture Making at Serpentine in London one senses an artist deliberately moving away from the orgiastic turbulence that once animated her paintings.